Sunday, June 22, 2014

Stephen Sweetlove Veteran Sambo Player

Here is a brief history of Veteran Sambo Player Stephen Sweetlove he will be Refereeing at the Presidents Cup in September

Stephen Sweetlove MBE is a former physical training and
self-defence instructor with the British Police Service. He won the British
sambo championships from 1985 to 1990 and again in 1992, 1996 and 1998. Stephen
has represented Great Britain at two FIAS World and two FIAS European
championships. He has competed at tournaments throughout the Soviet Union
including winning medals in 1986 and 1987 at the famous Anatoly Kharlampiev
Memorial tournament held in Moscow and in the same years winning bronze medals
at the international tournaments held in Kaliningrad. Stephen has also been
silver world medallist at the FIAS masters championships. Since his retirement
from competition Stephen has coached seven British champions five of whom went
on to represent GB at World, European and international level and he was
instrumental in the coaching of Tracy Farmer to become FIAS world champion in
1992. Stephen is now concentrating on becoming an international FIAS referee.

Genrikh took Mick and I under his wing when we toured
Russia in 1986 at this time Genrikh was refereeing at all the international
tournaments, he was still a very good coach and was very well respected by the
sporting community. He would give Mick and I advice all the time, although he could not speak a word of English...however
we understood what he was saying because he used the common language of sport.Genrikh Shults was 6-times Champion of the Soviet
Union in Sambo (1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961). Shults was also a captain
of the first Soviet National Judo team. In 1962 he won the bronze medal in
European Judo Team Championships (Essen) in class O80, and in 1963 he won the
gold medal in the European Judo Team Championships (Geneva) in U80 class.

Photo of British team in Washington USA for the USA Open
1986. Mick Poole and I won medals.

Receiving Bronze medal at Kaliningrad international 1997, the
late Brenda Jones is also in the photo..

British team in the USSR for the FIAS international with
contestants from USSR, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Mongolia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania and Poland. L to r - Mick Poole, Stephen Sweetlove, Paul Wright, Bob
Blaydon and Chris Kefford. Bronze medals for accept Bob Blayden.

Russian team visiting Ashford Police Training Centre. The
photo includes a former world champion, a future world champion, the late
Brenda Jones and the late Brian Eustace.

Photo of me winning my first fight at the 1992 World Championships Herne Bay organised by Martin Clarke and the BSF